An automotive sunroof device is known in which guide members are attached to lifting arms for guiding the sliding of a roof panel. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. S62-265021, for example, describes a structure in which a slider serving as the guide member is arranged at an edge of the lifting arm in a rear lifting device and a guide rail having a guide groove is attached to a lower surface of the roof panel. According to this, the guide grooves of the guide rails are guided by the sliders to guide the sliding of the roof panel.
In the structure described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. S62-265021, a guide groove is formed in the guide rail attached to the roof panel to fit the slider as a guide member in the guide groove, however, there is a structure in which a guide groove is instead formed in a guide member. Such a conventional example is shown in FIG. 5. Attached to a lower surface of a roof panel (not shown) is a stay 51 that has a vertical surface 51A and a horizontal surface 51B to present an L-shaped cross section, and extends in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle. A guide member 54 that has a guide groove 53 for the entire horizontal surface 51B and a lower part of the vertical surface 51A of the stay 51 to run through is mounted to the edge of the lifting arm 52, which is attached to the vehicle body. According to this structure, there is no need for the stay 51 to have guide grooves, having an advantage that the stay 51 can be simplified in its shape.
The stay 51 is composed of a metallic material such as for securing strength, and then, if groove walls of the guide groove 53 are also composed of a metallic material, friction during sliding is increased to be prone to cause a sliding noise. Therefore, the guide groove 53 is formed in a resin guide member 55 made of a resin material. Here, the lifting arm 52 is also responsible for supporting the weight of the roof panel, in addition to lifting and lowering the roof panel, to cause the guide member 54 to receive a load of the weight of the roof panel. As the resin guide member 55 alone has insufficient strength for this load, the guide member 54 is configured to include the resin guide member 55 and a reinforcing member 56 made of a metallic material for covering the former.